FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT JERSEY SHORE - PAGE 4

By Victoria Cavaliere SEASIDE HEIGHTS, N.J., May 24 (Reuters) - The New Jersey shore ushered in the unofficial start of summer on Friday, with businesses making last-minute preparations and officials declaring the resort towns ready for visitors seven months after Superstorm Sandy. Governor Chris Christie oversaw a ribbon-cutting ceremony to open a freshly re-constructed boardwalk in Seaside Heights and declared it "a great day for New Jersey. " "We're here with the whole country welcoming the Jersey shore back," he said.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hoping to win an advertising campaign for the Jersey Shore after Superstorm Sandy, Shannon Morris cut her bid 20 percent and hired teammates who ran the New Orleans tourism campaign after Hurricane Katrina. She failed, however, to cast Governor Chris Christie himself to star in the proposed commercials - a move that may have helped her higher-priced rival win the business. Her firm's loss has now triggered a federal investigation of Christie's possible misuse of Sandy relief funds.

"Jersey Shore" spinoff "The Pauly D Project" got off to a solid, if unspectacular, start Thursday night. Starring Paul "Pauly D" Del Vecchio, the 10:30 half-hour telecast attracted 2.9 million viewers and 2.7 million in the cabler's target 12-34 demo. As a lead-in, the return of "Punk'd" -- off the air since 2007 -- garnered 3.2 million viewers and 2.7 million in the demo. More to come. Click here for more articles on Variety.com.

MTV's "Jersey Shore" ended its six-season run on a low note, drawing 3.1 million viewers for the series finale Thursday night. That's a steep drop from the 4.6 million who tuned in to season debut and a huge decrease from the average of 9 million viewers who tuned every week during season three. The reality adventures of Snooki and the Situation ended with little fanfare, long removed from the banner days when the tumultuous cast was the rage across the pop culture landscape. MTV had no idea how popular the series would become when it launched in December 2009, and it helped the cabler set ratings records along the show's three-year path.

LeAnn Rimes and husband Eddie Cibrian didn't live in Chicago very long, but the celebrity couple was here long enough to lease a Gold Coast condo and have it featured on an episode of HGTV's new interior design series, “Interiors, Inc.” Rimes, who joined Cibrian in Chicago while he taped the now canceled “Playboy Club,” appears in the series premiere of “Interiors, Inc” Saturday (HGTV 8:30 p.m.) along with host Jonathan Pierce , who previously worked with the country singer on her homes in Nashville and Los Angeles.

Americans would most like to live next door to actress Sandra Bullock in 2011, but the cast of the reality show "Jersey Shore" made the most undesirable neighbors, according to a poll released this week. Bullock, who has won huge audiences with her All-American, girl-next-door image, earned more than a quarter of the vote in the annual poll on the most desirable celebrity neighbors, conducted by online real estate marketplace Zillow.com. She was followed by conservative Republican politician Sarah Palin.

Watching MTV's verite tragicomedy "Jersey Shore," one would not suspect Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi harbored literary ambitions. Polizzi gives the impression that, if she has any use at all for books, it would be as coasters upon which to place her soon-emptied drinks. Larger volumes, of course, might be stacked on a chair for the elfin 22-year-old to sit upon when she wants to dine with grown-ups, but this, too, is speculative. Simon & Schuster, however, is looking past that to the 5.5 million amateur anthropologists who watch her weekly train wreck on TV and 575,000 or so followers who hang on her every comment on Twitter, and, without missing a bleat, thinks, well, if they'll buy that … So a mere 71/2 months after Polizzi declared on Twitter that she was reading her first book, Nicholas Sparks' "Dear John" — or "officially reading my first bo!

This may come as a surprise, but the smart people responsible for Showtime's Emmy-winning "Homeland" could take a lesson from the gang behind "Jersey Shore. " MTV's signature series will come to an end later this month, a mere three years (seriously, where did the time go?) after its introduction. Explaining the decision, MTV exec VP Chris Linn told the New York Times, "Rather than drive it into the ground or milk it to the very, very end, we wanted to give it a dignified sendoff. " Admittedly, "dignified" was never part of the program; indeed, using the word in connection with "Jersey Shore" is funny enough to qualify for the 10:30 slot on Comedy Central.

An appearance from Snooki of "Jersey Shore" at your upcoming event: $2,000. Getting to see Snooki do back flips while possibly not wearing any underwear: priceless. Yes, you can rent the cast of "Jersey Shore," eonline.com reports. Snooki is your budget option; if you're looking for something mid-range, try $3,500 for Ronnie and Vinny, or about $5,000 for J-Woww. The real cash cows are The Situation and Pauly D, at $7,500 apiece.